Police responded to a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis on June 28, 2018. (Joshua McKerrow / Capital Gazette file)

In March, a student entered Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County and shot two students, killing one, before shooting himself.

On June 28, a man armed with a legally purchased shotgun blasted through the glass doors of the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis and killed five employees.

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In September, a temporary employee at a Rite Aid distribution center in Perryman shot three co-workers to death and injured three more before killing herself.

These incidents alongside growing gun violence in Baltimore — 12 people were shot, four fatally, on Thursday — have galvanized gun rights and gun control advocates seeking legislation reducing violence in Annapolis. There are several bills before the House of Delegates that would change how long guns are purchased, prohibit possession of 3D-printed guns, increase minimum mandatory sentences for repeat firearm offenders and other legislation.

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The House of Delegates Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on those bills starting at 10 a.m. Monday in the House of Delegates office building.

A day of gun-focused hearings is often called “gun day” in the General Assembly, though there can be several such days in a year. The Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee will hold hearings Wednesday.

The Maryland Senate has refused to confirm Gov. Larry Hogan’s appointment of three members to a board that reviews decisions by state police on permits to carry concealed handguns, with several senators citing the board’s rate of granting appeals.

Gun issue advocates have called upon supporters and opponents of the legislation to attend the meetings. Moms Demand Action is hoping to get 100 people to attend Monday’s hearing. The group focuses on “gun sense” legislation and is made up of volunteers who have been the victims and survivors of gun violence.

The group’s focus is on bills regulating shotguns and rifles and prohibiting 3D-printed and homemade guns.

“There is definitely a growing movement,” said Dawn Stoltzfus, a Moms Demand Action volunteer and spokeswoman. “People are seeing (gun violence is) a public health epidemic.”

Legislation going before the committee includes a bill to regulate long guns — shotguns and rifles — like handguns. This means buying shotguns would require background checks from unlicensed sellers and longer wait periods between purchases. Lawmakers also want to forbid the possession of 3D-printed guns and homemade weapons and regulate the sport version of an Armalite-15 rifle.

Gov. Larry Hogan is advocating for longer mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders using firearms in violent crimes. Another bill would add personal protection and self-defense as reasons to obtain a permit to carry, wear or transport a handgun.

Del. Sid Saab, R-Crownsville, has co-sponsored both pieces of legislation. He also is working on his own legislation to connect school resource officers with Anne Arundel County’s crisis officers.

Legislation should focus on people, not the guns, Saab said.

“We are going all the way down to the middle school,” Saab said. “Guns are not the problem, it is the people.”

Mark Pennak, president of the gun rights advocacy group Maryland Shall Issue, said these bills, among others, are an attack on Second Amendment rights and won’t solve public safety issues. Maryland Shall Issue opposes legislation they feel infringes upon Second Amendment rights.

“The 3D-printed gun legislation doesn’t affect public safety because those guns aren’t used in crimes,” Pennak said. He called it a “hysteria bill.”

Here are some of the bigger gun bills going before the committee on Monday:

House Bill 786 would create a long gun qualification license. This would essentially regulate long guns — such as hunting rifles and shotguns — similarly to handguns. A license has to be acquired before buying, and the purchaser has to go through four hours of training and can’t buy more than one gun within a 30-day period.

Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch on Tuesday named five recipients of the Speaker’s Medallion, the chamber’s highest honor: The victims of the Capital-Gazette shooting, Wendi Winters, Rebecca Smith, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and John McNamara.

Atterbeary’s legislation has broad support from Democrats and has more traction than last year’s bill. A Senate version of the bill will be heard Wednesday.

“It is time we do something about this in the state of Maryland,” Atterbeary said during a Moms Demand Action event on Jan. 31. “You will have to go get your permit, background checks will have to be conducted … then you can go purchase your rifle if that’s what you choose to do.”

House Bill 740 would outlaw the possession, creation and sale of homemade, 3D-printed guns and other firearms made after 1968 that don’t have a federally issued serial number. Federal law prohibits the manufacture of weapons that are undetectable. Supporters of this bill hope it will head off a public safety risk in the state, setting laws in place to prevent an explosion of 3D-printed weapons. Opponents say it is legislation in search of a problem as 3D-printed guns aren’t used in crimes and can be more expensive than guns purchased from stores or on the street.

House Bill 468 changes Maryland gun storage laws to include unloaded firearms. Current law requires loaded firearms be stored in locations that an unsupervised child doesn’t have access. There are exceptions for law enforcement officers and children who have firearm and hunter safety certificates.

The governor’s bill, House Bill 236, would lengthen mandatory minimum sentences for people who use a firearm in a violent crime. A second or subsequent offense comes with a mandatory minimum of 10 years. A first offense already comes with a five-year mandatory minimum. This bill has broad Republican support including Anne Arundel County Dels. Brian Chisholm, Nic Kipke, Michael Malone and Saab.